Andolian Protectorate
Founding of the Protectorate The Andolian Protectorate is a militaristic, highly technologically advanced and transhumanist faction in the Empire and Union universe. The Protectorate was started as a semi-secret society of people dedicated to protecting the Earth in case of alien invasion or other dangers from space. All members of the Protectorate were required to renounce their allegiance to any specific country and pledge allegiance to the Protectorate instead. The Protectorate made its membership a public matter by unanimous agreement on 1 January 2055; by this time it had accumulated over 5 million members. The Protectorate acquired weapons and space technology from several major nations, and proceeded to establish colonies on the Moon and Mars; the Andolian Mars colony rapidly surpassed all the other Martian colonies in size, technology level and population. First War of Sol The Protectorate, since it was not in the least affiliated with the United Nations, was the first major faction of colonists to challenge UN control of the colonies. The UN responded by attacking Andolian colonies on Mars with an orbital bombardment on 15 April 2129; many of the UN ships were targeted by Andolian anti-ship batteries on the surface and by Andolian, Asgardian, and civilian ships in orbit. The battle continued for 8 days because of reinforcements on both sides, but the UN took extremely heavy losses on the first day which really decided the outcome of the battle: a UN retreat from Mars. This battle, and subsequent battles in the Sol system including battles with the Asgardia Prime space station orbiting Earth and an Asgardian fleet orbiting the Moon, became known as the First War of Sol. This First War of Sol greatly weakened the UN's influence over colonies in the Sol System, and provided an opportunity for the Protectorate to move into a leadership role in fighting UN forces; the whole of the Sol system, from the Andolian megacolony of Covenant City on Mars to tiny LABS mining bases in the Kuiper Belt, was united against the UN. First Interstellar War After the First War of Sol, the Protectorate, now with increased freedom to build colonies, colonized several major systems, including Kapetyn and Tau Ceti. The colonists in the systems outside of Sol grew more and more resentful of the restrictions placed on interstellar colonies by the UN, but the Protectorate alone would not act to challenge the still-powerful UN immediately after the war, which had caused many casualties among the Andolian forces. However, this war strengthened the Andolian sense of unity and the recognition of the need for dedicated military facilities; before the war, each civilian was expected to have weapons and to fight individually, while now dedicated military forces were formed, although over 90% of the Andolian population who were capable of bearing weapons still did so. The UN tried to impose new regulations and restrictions on the colonies in systems outside Sol, which angered both of the non-UN major factions who had interstellar colonies: the Protectorate and the Asgardian Alliance. As a result of the new regulations, the Protectorate and the Asgardian Alliance agreed to form an alliance and to act jointly in actions against the UN. On 12 March 2144, Andolian forces in Tau Ceti and Kapetyn, as well as Asgardian forces in Alpha and Proxima Centauri, expelled UN diplomats from their political centers and ordered all UN ships in the system space to leave. The UN ordered all UN civilian ships to leave the space as the "rebels" as they were called at the time had ordered, and then sent in massive military fleets to blockade the inhabited planets of these four systems. Other Andolian and Asgardian systems, including the Darkstar and Bergeron systems, sent ships to assist in breaking the UN blockades, which were strengthened by many warp interdictors, a type of ship that, in addition to its main weapons, also contained a device that, when activated, prevented ships in the surrounding area from engaging their warp drives, which at the time were the only regularly used means of FTL or interstellar travel. This meant that, once ships entered the blockaded systems, they could not leave. The Asgardian government accused the UN of attempting to commit war crimes by trying to starve the populations of whole planets with the blockades; the UN did not respond to these accusations. Andolian forces managed to break the blockade in Tau Ceti on 15 December 2144, but the blockades in Kapetyn, Alpha Centauri, and Proxima Centauri were maintained until 2 June 2145, when the Andolian forces managed to break the blockade in Kapetyn, then came to the aid of the Asgardian forces in Alpha and Proxima Centauri, who engaged the UN fleets with all their remaining forces at the same time in a last ditch attempt to break the blockades. These victories were largely made possible by the vast numbers of workers who manufactured military materials for use in the war; the Protectorate especially was known for its good benefits for industrial workers. The new sense of unity among the workers, as well as their resurgence as a major part of society, led to the founding of the Union of Human Workers after the war. On 6 June 2145 all UN forces retreated back to Sol; the UN imposed a temporary trade blockade on all Asgardian and Andolian systems, but at the same time many systems which had been colonized by UN organizations originally declared their independence and began trading with Andolian and Asgardian systems. Due to this bypass, the UN unofficially ended the trade embargo in August 2145. Second Interstellar War All three of the major powers focused on building up their naval and military power over the next few decades, although the Protectorate also focused on exploration and colonization of new systems. Seeing the Protectorate making reasonable efforts to expand, the UN decided to launch a propaganda campaign presenting the Protectorate as an aggressive, militaristic power seeking to expand into the territory of the other major powers. The UN also cultivated diplomatic relations with the Asgardian Alliance, joining forces in a new faction that came to be known as the Union. The Asgardian Alliance largely made this alliance due to their concerns about the Protectorate; however, the only real reason for their concern was caused by the UN's propaganda campaign against the Protectorate, presenting them as an overaggressive, expansionist power trying to take territory from the other major powers. The Union, fueled by the major naval and military buildup of its component factions in the years after the First Interstellar War, was a very formidable military opponent at this time. The Union military officials planned the campaign for nearly three years before actually attacking the Protectorate. On 23 March 2189, a massive Union fleet of over fifty capital ships attacked the Andolian colony of New Arkhangelsk, a system which at that time had scarcely 50 million citizens. Seven other smaller Andolian colonies were attacked on the same day by smaller squadrons of Union ships. The Protectorate Navy was quick to respond, attacking several major Union shipyards as well as a former Asgardian spy station and shipyard complex located in interstellar space near the Mystic system. This spy station was taken by the Protectorate and was not recovered by the Union after the war. The Protectorate government, headed at the time by Supreme Leader Rodion Gordunov, noted that all the smaller colonies which were attacked were former UN systems which had declared their independence and then requested membership in the Protectorate; Gordunov also called the attacks war crimes as the Union's orbital bombardment of these planets and moons had largely targeted civilian areas, resulting in large numbers of civilian casualties. Throughout the war, the Protectorate forces fought valiantly, but were heavily outnumbered; though they scored some victories early in the war, by the time of the war's end in 2196, the Protectorate had lost most of the systems it had gained before the war and its forces were in hiding or retreat in all of its systems, including Tau Ceti. Founding of the Empire Gordunov had been assassinated by a Union agent on 4 July 2190, and the new Supreme Leader, Vasily Spiakov, fled to the Darkstar system with many remaining Andolian forces on 28 March 2196 after several decisive Andolian defeats, unofficially ending the war. While Spiakov headed a government that was nominally called the Andolian Protectorate, he only controlled 10 systems at first. In Tau Ceti, now renamed Alpha Imperatoris, the rest of the massive Andolian navy gathered; Lu Weng, the most senior military commander in the system at the time, founded the Galactic Empire; he controlled 24 systems originally, and he named them after the letters of the Greek alphabet. Tau Ceti was renamed Alpha Imperatoris at this time, and the other 23 original Imperial systems were also renamed. However, some rebels in the outer reaches of the Tau Ceti system still declared their allegiance to the Protectorate, and fought against the Imperial forces; they even held Mystic 5 at one point, but were later forced into the outer regions of the system. The Protectorate government under Spiakov hastily declared itself an ally of the Empire and renounced the rebels. The Union of Human Workers, which had unofficially supported the Protectorate in the war, and which boasted over 5 billion members at this time, also pledged its support of the Empire. This alliance, as well as the counter-alliance between the UN and the Asgardian Alliance, lasted until the fall of the Empire in 3506. However, even in its seeming death the Protectorate still won a major victory, for by 2200 all the former UN colonies outside Sol had declared their independence. Many of these colonies became dependent on the Empire, but they were really in a state of anarchy until the fall of the Empire, when these colonies, along with many former Imperial systems that were now independent, joined together to form a new faction: the Alliance of Independent Settlements. Manufacturers and Subgroups The Andolian Protectorate has many manufacturers and internal organizations. The two most notable Andolian organizations are the Duskhan League and the Santonian Order. The Protectorate has many allegiant ship manufacturers, including Andolia Stardrive, Brock Industries, Imperial Shipyards, Kordon Shipyards, Mystic Drive Yards, New Severodvinsk Shipyards, Riredius Shipbuilding Co, Seldar Industries, Spirit Shipyards, and Triskelion Stardrive (these were the ship manufacturers allegiant to the Andolian Protectorate as of 1 January 4025).Category:Factions